HONG KONG - General Motors Co. and its joint venture partners in China say they will spend 6.6 billion yuan ($1 billion) to build a third car plant to keep up with demand for vehicles in the world's biggest auto market.

The SAIC-GM-Wuling venture said the first phase of the factory will open in 2015.

The plant will be capable of turning out 400,000 vehicles and engines a year. It will help the joint venture reach its goal of producing 2 million vehicles a year in China by 2015. The company said Wednesday it wouldn't decide which models to make until closer to the start of production.

The new factory will be in Chongqing city in central Sichuan province. The venture's other two plants are located in Liuzhou in southern Guangxi region and Qingdao, on China's northeastern coast.

China has been the world's biggest auto market by vehicles sold since 2009, when it surpassed the United States. Some 18.5 million vehicles were sold in China last year and automakers expect the number to rise to 30 million by 2020. Foreign automakers have been expanding in China to offset flat or declining growth at home.

But slowing sales growth in China is prompting global automakers to look for new ways to tap the faster-growing low end of the market in smaller cities and the countryside.

SAIC-GM-Wuling is benefiting as rising incomes in those areas drive demand for the mini-trucks and microvans that it's focused on making. The venture has sold 1.31 million vehicles in China so far this year, compared with 1.28 million for all of 2011.

The joint venture, which also makes cars under GM's only-in-China discount line Baojun, last week opened a $1.3 billion factory at its Lizhou facility to make cars for that brand.

The joint venture is one of several GM has in China, where foreign carmakers are required to team up with local partners. The company's Chinese brands include Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and Opel as well as Jiefang and Wuling.

TOKYO - Chinese vehicle production from Toyota and other major Japanese automakers tumbled in October amid a territorial dispute between the two Asian powers led to boycotts of Japanese products in China.

Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday that its Chinese output plunged 61 per cent to 30,591 vehicles, its third straight monthly decline.

“We have adjusted the production to meet the current level of demand in China,'' said Dion Corbett, spokesman for Toyota. He declined to comment further on the reason.

Chinese output of Nissan Motor Co. sank 44 per cent to 61,360 vehicles, while production from Honda Motor Co. declined 54 per cent to 26,302 vehicles, the companies said.

Sales of Japanese automobiles have plunged in China since the Japanese government in September nationalized a cluster of tiny, uninhabited islands in the East China Sea called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China that are controlled by Tokyo but also claimed by Beijing.

The purchase set off violent demonstrations in China and a call to boycott Japanese goods. Toyota and Honda dealerships were burned down in one city, and crowds shouting anti-Japanese slogans have gathered and smashed Japanese cars.

The protests have mostly subsided, but Chinese consumers appear to be shunning Japanese products.

Toyota's total overseas production rose 12.9 per cent in October from a year ago to 430,041 vehicles.

Its global output during the month dipped just 0.3 per cent to 695,083 vehicles. Including subsidiaries Daihatsu Motor Co., which makes mostly small cars, and truck maker Hino Motors Ltd., global production slipped 0.3 per cent to 787,476, the company said.

Nissan's global output in October declined 4.8 per cent to 410,961 vehicles.

Honda's worldwide production during the month rose 9.4 per cent to 346,129 vehicles.

OAKVILLE, Ont. - Ford Canada says it is adding a third shift at its Oakville assembly plant, creating 300 jobs that will be first offered to laid off employees.

The company says high consumer demand for vehicles built at the plant has made a third shift necessary at its body, paint and pre-trim department.

There are still about 220 employees on layoff from the closure of the company's St. Thomas assembly plant, which closed in September 2011, who will get first priority.

Ford says it expects the third shift to start in the first quarter of next year.

The addition of the third shift was part of a recent deal with the Canadian Auto Workers union.

Ford has about 800 employees on layoff. It agreed in negotiations to investments that could create about 600 new jobs at its assembly complex in Oakville, Ont. A new product will add more than 300 positions.

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